Finishing off the holt roof and making storm damaged oak branches safe

Today I popped out with TCBC's Woodlands and Education Ranger Jon Howells to finish off Henllys CIW Primary School's otter holt roof and make an oak tree damaged by storms safe.

Firstly we, finished off the holt roof by collecting more brash material from our piles.

Jon dragging brash through the stream

We then added more layers in a perpendicular direction and topped off with some heavier logs.

Holt finished off

Following this we tackled one of the biggest oaks on the reserve who had lost some big branches in the various storms we'd had this year.


Can you spot the broken branches?

Jon used his extending Stihl polesaw which in fore and hindsight was much safer than him trying to climb it in his arb gear. We removed some of the load bearing branches which were keeping the larger branch up in the air. Towards the end they toppled down easily and safely and no longer pose a potential danger to members of the public.

I also had a chance to use the Tidy Towns funded compact camera to record some of it on video and a first attempt of adding some sort of text commentary:

Happy Christmas everyone and we'll have loads of stuff on in the new year.

Henllys Church in Wales Eco Heroes

Henllys Church in Wales have come down a couple of times in the last few weeks to make big impacts on Henllys Local Nature Reserve. Firstly, 30 children from year 1 came out to plant some bulbs and mulch around the reserve's mini-orchard. Secondly, the After School Eco-Club then came down on Friday 13th to construct an Otter Holt with the Friends of Henllys LNR.

Year 1 bulbs and mulchers

 The 5-6 year olds were disappointed not to be able to come out in the summer for a bug hunt due to bad weather. However, they really wanted to come out again and although we postponed this in October, it was third time lucky for the children.

Getting loppers in place to make pegs for the mulch mats

At the beginning of 2013, we received 10 local variety apple trees from Gwent Wildlife Trust and planted them out under their advice. Over the summer, the grass grew around all the trees creating a little bit of competition with our trees. At the end of July, the meadow was cut and probation came in and raked up a load of the grass and wildflowers. The children made good use of one of these piles and collected some of the rotted grass for the mulch. First, however, the children put down a mulch mat membrane and pegged the mats down using ash twigs cut from a previously thinned out tree. Under supervision they all had a go at using a pair of loppers purchased from a Keep Wales Tidy \voucher scheme. The well-rotted grass was then added on top of the mulch mat.

Apple tree inspection

 "The children were buzzing. I had fab parent feedback today so huge thank you to Friends of Henllys LNR." - Mrs. Sulway, Year 1 teacher.

Mulch mat, pegged and mulched over

"It was great to have these children on the LNR, doing extremely valuable conservation work. They could have collected leaves or done bark rubbings, but it shows that they are also capable of doing really good practical work too" - Chris Partridge, Friends of Henllys LNR

Eco_Club Otter Holt builders


 

The Friends of Henllys LNR, part built the holt using materials felled with Torfaen Council as part of the management plan and did as much preparation work as possible to help smooth the holt's construction. We started off the afternoon with a risk assessment done by the children and agreed a plan to work safely, including cutting back a low lying branch from the holt area to protect our eyes. We also had to work very carefully as we were near the stream and a steep bank.

"It was so much fun I really liked using the tools and sawing wood with Chris" - Laila Baxter

Checking the walls

The children had to organise themselves into building a wall each and work out how to stake the sides and make sure there weren't any really big gaps which would create draughts for any animals inside. They also had to build up a maze inside and cut some of the logs to size to fit the maze. Finally, they split into 2 groups, the collectors and the thatchers. The collectors had to bring the roofing material to the stream and the thatchers had to build the roof up. We just ran out of time to finish off the roof, so the Friends will do that before Christmas.

Group shot with holt without the roof on

It was great fun and made a start on the children learning to work safely outdoors, with risks from tools, weather conditions and location and they did really well.

"It was really muddy and lots of fun. I enjoyed putting the sticks on top of the otter holt" - Andrew  McCorkindale 

A-maze-ing

"It was brilliant, the best bit was passing the sticks over the stream" - Evie Philips

The weather was pretty poor in the afternoon, but an email from Eco-Coordinator Mrs. Sulway saying that the kids really wanted to come out even if it was raining was very heartening. It did rain and they got very wet and muddy, but laughed the whole time.

Holt done

"I thought it was great that all these children got really stuck in doing something that we did with a group of very experienced adults did a month earlier on the LNR. With more practice, the children will develop these skills which can only be beneficial for the children and the school in the long run. I was really impressed, especially seeing their muddy faces at the end, only to find when I got home, mine was exactly the same" Chris Partridge, Friends of Henllys LNR

"The children have had a great experience whilst completing the Otter Holt project. The building of the Otter Holt not only allowed the children to develop their knowledge and understanding of the local area, but it helped the children to develop their team building skills." - Mr Durbin, Headteacher. Henllys Church in Wales Primary School

Next Event 8th Dec at 10am

Our next event will take place on Sunday 8th December at 10am meeting in the car park.

The aim of the event is to prepare for next Friday's event with Henllys Church in Wales Primary School's Eco Committee where we will be building an otter holt from material thinned out from the Local Nature Reserve.

Bring clothing suitable to the conditions and we may get a bit dirty.

It is all about the kids

Children from Henllys Church in Wales & Coed Eva Primary Schools and 1st Henllys Scouts have made a great difference to the LNR this year. Our winter work starts up again this week with the After School Eco Club from Henllys Church in Wales making signs from greenwood harvested on the reserve. They'll be along the lines of the new signs to the otter holt:

We'll collect, split the wood, tidy it up and then draw information on the waymarker posts, while the posts will have a spike put on them with an axe.

To help with any greenwoodcraft work, yesterday we built a device which will help to rive, shave and mortice wood. The children will also get a chance to use these devices over the winter.

In the next few weeks, we'll be finishing off and installing the hedgehog boxes and either making another otter holt or constructing a bird hide with the Eco Club too; exciting times.

A little bit of time to myself, working with greenwood again

I was meant to be out with the Ranger today on my day off, but he called in his office sick, so I still fancied getting up to something on Henllys LNR.

Following on from last weekends brilliant otter holt construction with Cardiff Trail Scrubs using material thinned out from the reserve, I decided on a little me time. Firstly, I want to make sure that the wood cut down on the reserve is used to benefit the reserve. So we hope to perform any felling in stages and use the wood when needed.

Over the last few years, we have been really successful with our willow coppicing and revetment works and I keep building temporary mangers from willow to stack the willow ready to be bundled up. I decided with all the timber we had, I would make a Kentish notch device, an old tool made from wood and loops of cord or wire, which allows bundles to be stacked and tied with just one person. So, to do this I made some stakes, this involved getting my side axe out of spring, summer and autumn hibernation to spike them.

My old side axe back out in daylight

I then knocked them into the ground in a rectangle of approximately 2 foot wide by 4 foot long. I fencing stapled wire to the tops of the two 2-foot apart posts, creating two loops 4-feet apart. In theory willow stem longer than 4 foot will be held above the ground.

The posts knocked into the ground and wires looped between adjacent posts

some brush from last year as a tester

   I returned then to the harvested wood area and collected a few pieces of ash. One section I clove to create two signposts and to a longer section with a slight curve in one end, I clove it and created two similar handles to complete the Kentish notch.

I shaved down the sides to a reasonably smooth finish for the signs. Following this, I permanent markered some information and added a liberal coating of oil. In hindsight, I should have waited and borrowed a pyrography kit. Anyway, you live and learn (but then rather frustratingly you forget).

I was tempted to do it all properly with wood, but ran out of time, so drilled and nailed with aluminium clout nails (these bend if you just look at them with a mildly aggressive frown).

As you can see from the picture above, I have imitated a child's handwriting to deter vandalism, never was much good at art. Anyway, the holt looks really good still after 1-week following construction.

I wandered over to the willow coppice area, knocked in another post into ground which can be best described as homoeopathy levels of soil in water. As a result, I had to knock the post deeper into the ground than I was expecting, so had to cut the top of the post at an angle and attached the Kentish Notch Device sign.

Sign for the Kentish Notch device made from freshly split green ash wood

Finally, I checked by Woodsman's grips and they worked a treat even on this tiny bundle. I may modify these at a later date to either thicker wire or rope.

Woodsman's grips work well on this tiny bundle

All in all it makes me think how nice it would be to construct some other greenwood devices, maybe I can convince one of the schools to come along and help Henllys Church in Wales or Coed Eva???

Creating an otter holt between two community groups

14 volunteers came out together on this lovely Saturday morning to help construct an otter holt on Henllys Local Nature Reserve. The event was hugely bolstered by Cardiff Trail Scrubs coming over to Torfaen to help out on their last ever Community Group event.

The materials for the project were previously cut down and stacked from an adjacent thinning out of trees as part of the management plan performed by Torfaen County Borough Council's (TCBC) only Woodlands and Education Ranger Jon Howells, Henllys LNR volunteer Chris Partridge and TCBC volunteer John Adkins.

The group had to sort out the materials, find a suitable spot for the holt and then transport and build the holt. The site which was chosen was across a stream which was safely passable in one place. All the volunteers organised themselves into teams and received training in the various hand tools and only backed up with my chainsaw where necessary.

 The event was also a chance to use the new loppers and secateurs purchased from a Keep Wales Tidy voucher scheme for the first time. They were purchased for exactly this kind of occasion where there were quite a few volunteers and nobody this time was left waiting around for tools.

 As the larger logs were brought over and put into place, 2 teams were furiously making stakes using saws and spiking them with an axe or billhook.

These were knocked into the ground with a hedging maul to help us to build up the walls. A similar technique was used to build up the inner maze.

Once all the walls were finished, all hands were employed to build up the roofing with brash layered at 90 degree angles to make it as weather proof as possible.

David 8 said " I liked pretending to be an otter and helping to make the stake using Richard's little axe"

Chris from Friends of Henllys LNR said "We are a small group and extremely grateful to Cardiff Trails Scrubs and Richard Weaver for coming all the way over here from Cardiff to do this on their very last event too. We are also grateful to TCBC for continuing to give us support, encouragement and permissions to carrying on performing conservation activities which are not normally possible under their limited resources. It really helps in partnership to improve management of local green spaces."

Joint event on the LNR with Cardiff Trail Scrubs

The next event on Henllys LNR will take place on Saturday 26th October at 10 am meeting at the Car Park off Birch Grove (NP44 6EP).

 

We are privileged to be joined by Cardiff Trail Scrubs who are coming to Henllys LNR on their very last community group event. They came out with us just before they formed a couple of years ago and it is apt that they are coming out with us again.

 

There are multiple activity options depending on the weather conditions including willow coppicing, fascine construction and installation or otter holt construction.

 

All you need to bring are sturdy footwear and clothing suitable for the conditions.

 

We have some gloves for adults from the recent WG Tidy Towns Grant, loads of children's gloves from a Keep Wales Tidy Grant. We will also be using loppers from a Keep Wales Tidy Grant and hopefully some saws will have arrived from the WG Tidy Towns Grant.

 

All training with tools will be given.

ps here is a picture showing our stand of Japanese knotweed just over 2 weeks afer stem injecting it with glyphosate:

There is just one very small stem with green leaves on it which either wasn't injected or injected efficiently. Overall, it has seemed to work really well without damaging nearby vegetation.

Nice little Christmas present, one for your calendar

Keep Wales Tidy have been a big supporter of Friends of Henllys LNR over the years with insurance, equipment grants and the use of some of their tools for activities. They have been celebrating their 40th anniversary with a range of activities including a photo competition “What I love about Wales”.

The winning 12 pictures have been included in Keep Wales Tidy’s first ever calendar. This 2014 calendar is being sold in the run up to Christmas to raise funds, so that KWT can continue to support community groups and schools across Wales with their ongoing environmental work.

The 12 pictures are fantastic and capture the beauty of Wales throughout the year and serves as a reminder to why we spend so much time and effort doing our bit to help make Wales a better place to live.

Each calendar has ample space to add notes and costs only £7.50. You can arrange to buy the calendar directly from me, Chris Partridge, via friendsofhenllyslnr@gmail.com or 07824504813. I can deliver locally in Henllys/Coed Eva or meet you on the LNR.

 

Funny weather upsets our invasive plants & stem injecting knotweed

We had some late frosts this year and an almost unheard of very prolonged and hot summer. This meant that our dominant invasive friend, Himalayan balsam, came out to play later than usual and really struggled in the heat, wilting pathetically in July. Sadly, the inevitable rains came down and the balsam went up. Furthermore, the long mildish late Autumn with good spells of sunshine and rain has brought up an abundance of small Himalayan balsam. Speaking to a colleague in Cardiff this was also happening in Cardiff in late August. After a walkabout on our Nature Reserve late on this evening I was amazed to see more little balsam plants out in flower on the second of October. The common mantra is don't pull or cut late in the season (very late August or early September) here I was pulling it up happy in the knowledge that there were no ready seed pods. Even some left over bigger plants had seed pods yielding with much effort white, unripe seeds. So I imagine those people who have given up for the year are advised to take one last look especially along or near waterways and pull them up.

7 inch high Himalayan balsam in flower Oct 2nd.

We have 1 Japanese knotweed stand as well which has been treated by Torfaen Council Ranger Jon Howells and volunteers for the past 3 years. It is now a small stand of only 15 or so stems. The summer heat and dry soil has almost killed the plant with leaves for much of the year being yellowish rather than a vibrant green. However, the sudden wetness with sunshine has brought parts of the plant back to life with little green leaves emerging in October. On a few stems the plant has just come into flower almost a month after most over plants found abundantly throughout Torfaen.

OUR SICKLY LOOKING KNOTWEED STAND (UNTREATED APART FROM A GOOD DROUGHT)

Some small green leaves coming through with small flower bracts

One stem with no leaves and flowers emerging

The plan on Friday morning is to treat the Japanese knotweed with herbicide (glyphosate) with a technique called stem injection. Japanese knotweed stems resemble bamboo with hollow stems. The stem injector has a needle with the hole not at the end like a drug needle, but part the way along.

The hole of the needle is on the side to help prevent blockages and safe infusion into the hollow stem

This means when you put it into the stem it doesn't get blocked and when you depress the syringe trigger it empties into the stem. For Japanese knotweed the best way of doing this is just below the 3rd node above ground level. The plant then takes the glyphosate down into the rhizomes where it starts to kill the plant. The best time of the year to do this is when the plants are at terminal height and when the plant is in flower. Like we discussed earlier, you have to go off the plant not a set date in the calendar and this year for this clump it is very late. This stand was much bigger in previous years and it has been sprayed in the past. This is the usual method for large stands, but you need to be much more careful with weather conditions i.e. not very windy and dry. You are also much more likely to get some drift onto nearby plants which may kill them too. This isn't always a terrible thing as you need to get close to the plants to be able to treat them. With Stem injections the weather is less of an influence, it just takes a lot longer as each stem is injected. Furthermore, you normally spray with a 3-4% glyphosate solution, stem injections are normally 1 ml of neat or 2ml of 50% strength glyphosate so is a much less efficient way of introducing glyphosate into the plant.

Stem injecting a small knotweed stem, Fri 4th Oct 2013

Importantly, when using herbicides you still need the right training, or to be working with someone who is properly trained if you are working on public or someone else's land (PA1, PA6 and if near water PA6W). As the LNR is publicly owned, permission was granted from Torfaen County Borough Council (TCBC) to do this. We are using a little of TCBC's glyphosate for the treatment and one of Keep Wales Tidy's stem injector kits; a nice example of partnership working. There are many volunteer groups across Wales who are now supporting local authorities to tackle invasive species which has to be a better way of tackling these especially in these difficult economic times and we are proud to be doing our part in this.

Tidy Wales Week Success and in the papers

Last night saw 5 volunteers pull out 10 bags of litter from Henllys Local Nature Reserve. The pick was part of Keep Wales Tidy's nationwide Tidy Wales Week campaign. Most of the litter was collected from the areas recently flailed by the tractor on the reserve and was mainly found near the hedgeline bordering Henllys Way (i.e. chucked over the hedge). The litterpick lasted around 1.5 hrs and included a mini-tour of the reserve to the 2 newcomers.



Litter along the hedgeline before and after

We dragged all the bags to the other end of the reserve at the car park where TCBC's Street Scene team kindly removed this the next day.


Roller blinds

Chris Partridge from Friends of Henllys LNR said "It is always a good feeling to rid a beautiful site like ours of litter and we are pleased to take part in a much larger project with many other like-minded people across Wales for Tidy Wales Week".

Cllr. Smith-Higgins added "We should consider ourselves very fortunate indeed to have a nature reserve on our doorstep here in Henllys, and extremely lucky to have a group of people who freely give their time to keep it in good order. I was delighted to be able to make a small contribution in time to help out and I would urge others to spare some time as well...litter picking can be quite therapeutic!"

View Tidy WalesWeek Litterpick in a larger map

The team with haul

More pictures from the event can be viewed here: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjJh48RA

We were joined by local Henllys Community Council's Cllr. Lawrence Smith-Higgins and a new volunteer Brian. Both came along to the last Friday's consulation on the Welsh Govenment funded Local Authority led Tidy Towns Grant that was recently awarded to the Local Nature Reserve. Their first taste of the grant was wearing a pair of gripper gloves. Previous to this, we all brought our own gloves to events, so this is a great start again for the group. Below shows this week's article in the Pontypool Free Press (please note the telephone number is 07824504813 for getting in touch).

Pontypool Free Press Article (Wed 11th Aug)

Tidy Wales Week tidy up September 16th at 6pm.

We will be taking part in Keep Wales Tidy's nationwide Tidy Wales Week campaign on Mon Sept 16th at 6pm http://www.keepwalestidy.org/tidy-towns/tidywalesweek.

Date: 16th Sept
Time: 6pm
Meet: Car Park off Birch Grove (NP44 6EP)

We'll mainly be clearing some of the rubbish exposed after the recent Welsh Government Tidy Towns Funded opening of the LNR by the tractor flail and bruchcutters. All equipment will be provided. Wear suitable clothing for the weather and ground conditions which may be wet, slippery and uneven. For any more information contact the Friends via friendsofhenlyslnr@gmail.com or 07824504213.

Rubbish exposed after tractor flailing

Final group balsam event

Date: Mon 9th September

Time: 6pm

Location: Meet Car Park off Birch Grove NP44 6EP

Bring: sensible footwear and gardening gloves if you have them.

With the start of school, it is a good chance to get rid of some excess excitement by helping to pull up more Himalayan balsam for perhaps the last time for this year. With help from 1st Henllys Scouts, a massive area mown by tractor as part of the new Tidy Towns funded project and the group and others usual hard work, we have pulled an amazing amount this year, but there is always loads more to do. You are all invited to come along and join in a little bit more in this final push for the LNR.

As Churchill may have put it:

"We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in the football field, we shall fight behind Glan Rhyd and orchard, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength with care, we shall defend our LNR, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the flood plains, we shall fight in the fields and in the streams, we shall fight in the drain grills; we shall never surrender"

Contact Chris on 07824504813 or friendsofhenllyslnr@gmail.com for more details or if you are planning on joining us.


View Henllys LNR in a larger map

Tel 07824504813
Email: friendsofhenllyslnr@gmail.com
Twitter: @HenllysLNR

Time is of the essence of balsam

Himalayan balsam is a remarkable plant. During the hot spell earlier in the summer, acres of this plant were wilting almost to the point of saving us from having to treat it, However, and inevitably, the rains did come and the plants have not just bolted, but bolted into flower too. This puts us into the difficult management period of Himalayan balsam control. There is no rule of thumb here, we pull until there is more green than pink. That is when the pink flowers have turned to seed pods. When these pods are young and small, the seeds inside are white small and not viable.

Later on these pods swell, the pods ripen to a black hard shell and them they explode sending the seeds over 5m away. Pulling balsam by hand into massive piles appears to be a great method of control, if you have a load of people. We are now at the point where smashing them down will do less harm than good.....unless we have an Indian summer. Last year, Himalayan balsam plants were still in flower in October, when adjacent plants had already shed all of their seeds. A plant with a smashed stem, this late in the normal season may have time to regrow new flower heads from any left over node, if the weather is on the plant's side.

Some signs of larger green seed pods. The seeds inside were mainly white with some small brown patches

We have started now doing mixtures of pulling by hand and blitzing with a new Tidy Towns funded brushcutter.

Nicola and Tricia out on a Balsam pull

balsam in bramble

balsam with minimum bramble clearance, brushcutter then pull by hand

What we really need is a small army of people to get down as much balsam as possible in the last couple of weeks. This could be tricky and also unlikely, the schools start up again this coming week, so they'll be really busy and the transition is a tough time for the scouts. Still, we can't complain as we have achieved so much this year compared to previous years and it has all been down to forging new partnerships.

Over 2 acres of balsam bashed

Don't forget next Volunteer event is Monday 19th Aug at 6pm, meet at the car park of Birch Grove NP44 6EP.....

....I was out today with a local contractor who was flailing more balsam on the LNR today. We pointed out the best places to go and TCBC Ranger Jon and I worked in the gaps between the trees with brushcutters.

Over an acre of balsam and bramble

Tractor mowed it down


Loads of the reserve have been tackled over the last 2 days which were never touched in the past by our group. exciting times. More pictures can be viewed here: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjHxwGVo . Also met up with Brenda and Anthony and they'd just finished clearing the area north of the reserve on the top field beyond the football pitches spending over 24 volunteer hours doing this; brilliant stuff.

Next event Mon19th Aug at 6pm & things are a changing on the LNR

If any of you have visited the Reserve over the last few days, you may have noticed a few large differences. Firstly the main meadow areas have been mown as part of the annual management organised by TCBC. Secondly, a contractor has flail mown 1.75 acres of pretty much just Himalayan balsam at the South Eastern part of the LNR. As a group we have never been able to tackle this and the tractor has smashed it all up before it had a chance to seed this year; you'll hardly recognise it. Here's a little map summarising some of the work done over the last month and a bit:

 

View Large habitat works 2013 in a larger map  

 

Next Event
Anyway, we will be spoilt for choice on more accessible balsam areas on Monday. If you are bringing anyone from the ages of 3-13, we have just bought a load of children's gloves, courtesy of a Keep Wales Tidy Grant so no need to bring their own. It'll make a nice picture too. Over 13s better bring gloves!! Bring suitable clothing for the conditions, it does seem to rain on a balsam pulling night.

 

Date: 18th Aug

Time: 6pm

Meeting Point: Car Park off Birch Grove, NP44 6EP.

Quotes from the kids of Class 4WW Coed Eva Primary School from the pond planting day...

All of the following quotes were prepared by Class 4WW of Coed Eva Primary School afterwards with Mrs Walters. They capture the day more or less accurately with a bit of artistic embellishment. They show how getting the kids out of the classroom can have a profound effect on their early life experiences. They may get super interested and come volunteer with us in years to come. The positive effect on our small group was also fantastic. The kids were buzzing, but us oldies were buzzing too. The quotes have been left in their un-edited state.

Henllys Nature resurve was fun and exiting.It was only a ten minute walk and I really enjoyed it. We planted lots of flowers like the marsh marigold, the bog bean and lots more. Every one that was wearing wellies was allowed in the pond. In the pond there were blue dragon flies fliying all around the place. Mr Wayne had to go in the middle of the pond witch was the deepest and the water was up to his chest. I really enjoyed myself and would like to come again.

Angharad

I enjoyed it very much at the nature reserve I liked getting muddy and wet and walking there and back. It was a advancer and it was very fun my trousers got very muddy.  it was exiting seeing mr wayne go in the warter.  john hat to cut a stick for Mr  Wayne to see how deep it was In the water. It was a big thick stick and a brown stick it was bigger than him.

Codie

Henllys nature reserve is really great it was the best Friday ever. It is amazing let me tell you really it is. The view is beatyful Green grass  purple flowers yellow looesestrife ,for get me nots, Water mints there all so beatyful lovely Chris was really kind and nice Mr.wayne  stood in the middle  he held a stick  in the pond to see how deep it was. It was about  30-40 cm  deep.it was really the best day of school. Megan had  wellys  on John cut a chunk of wood  for Mr. Wayne Mrs. Waters  actually stood in the pond. 

Eleanor

On Friday 12^th off July 2013, we went to Henllys Nature Reserve to plant pond plants. We walked there and back. We all wore wellys and trousers or leggings so that when we went in the pond to plant the plants we didn’t get wet. Mr Wayne, who came with us, went in the pond in wayders to see how deep the pond was. I planted a bog bean. I thought it was a very funny name. We planted all different types of plants like the Marsh marigold and the water lily and water violet. They all went in different places in the pond. We walked through Glan Rhead right past my house! The day before we went we researched all the different plants and where they go in the pond. It was all gooy ,sticky and muddy in the pond but I liked it. Skimming across the water was dragonflys called blue darts. I thought that they were beautiful. There were lots of water spiders in the pond too. That was my day at the Nature Reserve and I would love to go again.

By Ellie Chapman.

Friday 12^th of July 2013,  Coed Eva Primary school year 4  went to the Nature Reserve in Henllys. We walked for about 15 minutes .when we got there was two  people called Chris and John  there Mrs water said “ everyone sit down”  so we all sat down Chris  said to  stand by the deep  part for about 10 minutes then John came along  and said I look like a lemon just standing there . After that I went in the water me and Ellie Chapman  got stuck in the mud .  The water went over my wellys . I had to walk home with wet wellys and that’s my trip to the nature reserve.

By Alice Grace Stockham.

On Friday the 12^th of July we went Henlly`s nature reserve it was a 15 min

Walk. We planted water plants in the pond we planted bog bean and water lilly and lots more. I liked planting the plants. I didn`t like the water. I enjoyed every minute.

By Harry

My favoriture bit was  when   we   planted  the  plants  in  the  pond. Mr Wayne  was  funny  when  he  went  in  the  pond to  see  how  deep  was  the  water. I  had lots of  fun  at   Henllys  nature  reserve. I want  to go a  again.

Jessica

 

My favourite bit of today was sorting the plants into order because it really got our brains working. Another good bit of today was watching Mr Wayne go in the

Pond because you will never know how deep it could be.

Kayleigh

I enjoyed going to Henllys nature reserve because it was really fun planting the plants in this special pond soil. I loved going in the pond and helping my best friend Ella get out of the mud. I also loved the beautiful site of the land and trees. I spotted some colour full dragon fly’s they were really beautiful. I was muddy from the pond I was soaking wet.

By Layla Sophia Bourne

 I   learnt a lot about nature  reserve.  I have learnt  about  planting plants in the dirty water. I liked the trip because I have been there a copal of times this year. The weather was rally hot and Mr.Wayne went in the water to plant some plants.

We had so much fun at the nature reserve and in the pond. I am coming again because it is so good and fun.

The nature reserve  is  fun and we planted  the  plants in  the  pond it was dirty. Some of the plants water violet and fringe lilies. There  are living things in  the  dirty  water  and  there  is dirty stuff  in  there aswell. Thay could die.

Llewi

My favourite thing of the day was puting soil in the black bags and then going in the pond with Mr wayne. My wellies got stuck in the mud, that was the best thing that happened,and my favourite plant is a bog bean. It was boiling hot at the Henllys nature reserve.The only bad thing was the 15 minute walk.

Matthew

I loved about Henllys nature reserve Mr Wayne because he when  in the pond and planted mine and codie’s plant it was fun and funny.

The best part was when Mr Wayne went in the pond . This man called  john cut Mr Wayne a big thick stick. For him to have in the water when he went in the pond .

Milly

 Friday 12^th July 2013 I went to Henllys Nature Reserve!

Today has been a blast because I went to Henllys Nature Reserve. Also Mr Wayne dressed in waders to plant pond plants in the pond that 3as my favoute part and the water was up to his chest. The plants we planted were called whitelilly bogbean lillypad and there was meny more. I had so much fun I want to go there again! I forgot to say that the walk there was so amazing that when I got home I tolled my mum all about it when I got home like I said I loved it so much I wont to go there again and see what my plants look like!

 Shanaya

I loved it at Henllys nature Reserve, and I loved planting the plants in the muddy, sqwishy  pond. I would  just like to say a big thank you to Henllys  nature Reserve. I would like to come again. Only because it was fun . Chris asked  John to cut a big, huge branch off a fallen down tree, for Mr Wayne to go in the pond to see how deep it was to put the plants in the right order.  I hope that the plants that we planted in the mucky pond and I hope that they grow nicely.      

By Sophie

The kids were absolutely amazing, you could tell they were excited, but they planed the work ever so carefully beforehand. They were also extremely well behaved on the reserve and a credit to Coed Eva Primary School. They’ve started the Henllys LNR pond records book year 0 today which will be handed down to next year’s Class 4 and hopefully on and on and on. Looking forward to next year’s events already.

Chris Partridge, Friends of Henllys LNR.

 

Pond planting and Sampling with Coed Eva Primary School

Working with year 4 of Coed Eva has been amazing fun and really inspiring for our small group. Most of the plants in the pond look great and Class 4RP (Ms. Payne) did a great job of sampling. Here's a little report including the results of their work...

Twenty Eight volunteers from Friends of Henllys LNR and Coed Eva Primary School’s Class 4RP came along to sample macroinvertebrates from the two adjacent ponds.

Look at the concentration

Year 4 were studying water quality in class and we decided it would be good idea investigate the pond water quality by recording the macroinvertebrates caught. The class learnt from the Friends that some bugs like very clean water and some live in dirty water and looking at the range and average of these bugs caught can give clues to water quality.

Dragonfly nymph (likes good quality water)

Moreover, they could scientifically test to see if there are any differences between the two ponds which are only 40 metres apart from each other. After a quick demonstration of pond dipping and how to look at what they’d caught using sample trays, the children split into three groups which they called themselves , dragonflies, fireflies and cased caddis flies. Armed with a crib sheet and tally chart prepared beforehand by the Friends, the children set to their tasks admirably. After a suitable length of time, they cleaned their nets, but all the bugs back and headed over to the second pond. They carried on sampling in this pond noting that some of the pond was green and there was some plantlife inside this one, which was not present in the first one.

Greenish growth in pond 2

 

The data was summarised with loads more dragonfly larvae found in the planted up pond (Class 4WWs) compared with the top pond.

	Planted Pond	Top Pond
Caught	Sum Planted	Sum top pond
Pondskater (BI 5)	11	12
Water boatman (BI 5)	16	14
Dragonfly nymph (BI 8)	9	2
Water beetle (BI 5)	2	2
Pond snail	6	0
Frog	1	0
Tadpole	1	0
Caddisfly larvae (BI 5)	2	0

 Using the calculated Biotic Indices and an unpaired t-test the probability of a difference between the 2 ponds was p = 0.118.  From this, with a 0.05 confidence limit, they are not significantly different. However, the numbers of dragonfly larvae caught were quite a bit larger than at the top pond (I'd be tempted to do it again with a smaller group to minimise errors).

NOT BAD FOR 9 YEAR OLDS DOING SOME PROPER SCIENCE EH?

We were supported again with equipment and experience by TCBC’s ranger Jon Howells.

 

For more pictures, have a look at http://flic.kr/s/aHsjGZ9YUJ Many thanks to all the teachers who were really encouraging and positive with the kids, a real credit to Coed Eva and brilliant for Henllys Local Nature Reserve.